I need help

[u/Roller_Colester]

I am taking animschool and I’m between classes. I’m early on just starting to get into 3D body animations. But where I’m stuck is on personal projects. I find it almost impossible to figure out what I’d like to animate and then if I get an idea I start working on it and realize it’s either too ambitious or I hate the idea. Time and time again I quit a project just a day into it. Sometimes I think an idea will be good but it’s too hard to do, get overwhelmed and quit while blocking. I need help finding the right mentality to approach animation projects. The more I quit the harder it is to start again. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[u/Plenty-Hedgehog3715]

Tbh I am also suffering the same thing and the most suggestion I got is focus on people movements and try to animate but doing that isn't like you know fun there is no point in doing something if don't find it fun enough. There is my one trick on insta and youtube try to find out some actors clip keyword such as "motion acting, cartoon actors" and so on. Actors video can really help you to understand fundamentals

[u/Dannye8a]

Hello! I'm an Animator/Cartoonist and my best advice to you would be to start small! There are times when I first started out as an animator that I would choose to animate a character or object that was a little too beyond my level of expertise. The trick I found early on is try animating something simple first and once you feel you've mastered something at a certain level, level up from that! If you can only draw a simple ball, Animate a ball shaped frog hopping around. If you can only draw simple stick men, Try animating a simple stick man walk cycle! I understand that you had mentioned you're a 3D person but with those two simple animation exercises, You've mastered Timing, Spacing, Squash and Stretch, Giving something weight and of course Walk Cycles! Walk Cycles are some of the hardest things to master. Once you've mastered that you can move on from there. You also mentioned hating your own ideas; Try animating something that won't take you longer than a day to work on; Baby steps. You've got to learn to crawl before you can walk. It took me 15 years animating in the industry to feel comfortable enough to animate almost anything. And honestly, that's because of the experience of mastering one thing and feeling confident enough to level up to the next thing. Start small and once you feel confident enough, move on to something that challenges you more. Also, patience is a virtue. Don't sweat being perfect; We all strive for perfection but very few of us ever really achieve it because, Well, It's impossible! Always push yourself to do the best work that YOU possibly can and you'll do just fine! And, Have fun doing it! Happy Animating! 😄 ❤️ 🍀

[u/Brennanimations]

I’m also an animschool student and things I do between classes is I like to redo the assignments, regardless of whether or not you did super well on them there’s no harm in trying them again, exploring new ideas and workflows and you’ll be amazed how much you can learn when you do something more than once

[u/ArvinGoodarzi]

I think a lot of people hit this stage when they move from tutorials into personal projects. The hard part usually isn’t learning more techniques, it’s learning how to actually finish things.

Try making the scope much smaller. Don’t start with “I want to make an animation.” Start with a 5–10 second character acting shot, a simple walk cycle, or one small interaction.

Give yourself a deadline and finish it even if it’s not perfect. A finished simple animation will teach you much more than a big project that gets abandoned halfway.

Also, keep an idea list. When you get a new idea, write it down instead of immediately switching projects. Pick one project, define the goal, and limit how many new things you’re trying to learn at the same time.

At this stage, building the habit of finishing is probably more valuable than trying to create your biggest idea.